Reddit reviews Cambodia, Pol Pot, and the United States: The Faustian Pact (Leaders; 7)

>However, the list posted in the link claims that "the U.S. bears responsibility ... for those resulting from the activities of the Khmer Rouge – a total of about 2.5 million people." This is a wild reach. 

>There's no need to include second order effects from third parties, when the US itself has so much blood on its hands from direct action. Including those 2.5 million really threatens the credibility of the whole list. 

It's worth distinguishing which casualties were directly caused by US Military vs. other parties.

However, I think we should still count these casualties as US-inflicted when they would not have otherwise occurred if the US had not intervened in the first place.

This is even more true when the US enabled the perpetrator's violence via military, financial, or political support. 


Did US imperialists (i.e. those running the war) intend that the Khmer Rouge should kill approximately 25% of the Cambodian population?

Probably not.

But, would the Khmer Rouge even have emerged from obscurity to commit these crimes had the US not invaded Vietnam and bombed Cambodia?

I highly doubt it.


Did the US support the Khmer Rouge in anyway that enabled their atrocities?

I think there is a case to be made that it did.


The Long Secret Alliance: Uncle Sam and Pol Pot
https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/pol/pilgerpolpotnus.pdf


Nixon and the Cambodian Genocide
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/04/khmer-rouge-cambodian-genocide-united-states/


Who Supported the Khmer Rouge?
https://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/16/who-supported-the-khmer-rouge/


Michael Haas, Cambodia, Pol Pot, and the United States: the Faustian pact, New York: Praeger, 1991.
https://www.amazon.com/Cambodia-Pol-Pot-United-States/dp/0275940055


Michael Haas, Genocide by proxy: Cambodian pawn on a superpower chessboard, New York: Praeger, 1991.
https://www.amazon.com/Genocide-Proxy-Cambodian-Superpower-Chessboard/dp/0275938557/